Keeping bees has become very popular in recent years with the number of beekeepers in the UK increasing rapidly over the last five years. It is now realised that all bees are vitally important to the environment. If humans do not care for them by conserving their habitats and protecting them from the effect of modern living, we will suffer in the long term.

The honey bee is a special case. Like all other bees it is a wild animal, but humans have found it an advantage to work with colonies of bees.